Harold Mitchell, advertising supremo, summed up the mood that led to Kevin Rudd’s downfall, as quoted in the AFR, 23 June:
It is an ‘amazing fact’ that ‘ordinary people on the street are barracking for five people…who have got so much money they don’t know what to do with it’.
The moves to dump Kevin Rudd are obviously linked to the Resource Super Profits Tax.
Mark Arbib and the NSW Right faction may well have been bought out by the Machiavellian Miners. But who knows how much they have donated to them in the last month?
It is tragic that we have to wait 18 months to see how much has been donated by the Machiavellian Miners. The Australian Electoral Commission must be told – in an information age this is unacceptable!
It was suggested on Renegade Economist radio by Kevin Danaher, Global Exchange that if donations are to continue, politicians should be announced as the Member for Rio Tinto (and wear the company logo on their suit a la race car drivers) so we know whose interests they represent.
Democracy should be re-framed as Lobbyocracy.
When considering Rudd’s raft of reforms – saying sorry to indigenous people, signing kyoto, free insulation, a $900 GFC handout, no recession, hospital reform, national broadband and now for trying to divy up the country’s resource profits he’s on the chopping block – how many times we will hear of comparisons to Gough Whitlam, a similar fast paced Prime Minister who was wiling to take on the monopolists but tragically overthrown in a constitutional coup?
Yes there were huge issues with Rudd’s bureaucratic communication capabilities, but all fans of the Henry Review must fear that the political guillotine can be applied to them too. To hear radio discussing the US Ambassador commenting on the leadership spill brings into play the larger geo-political forces at work.
We must maintain vigilance in the belief that entrepreneurs should be given more incentive than those who benefit from the privilege of mining and hoarding the economic rent of the land.
Gillard must come out strongly and call the lobbyists for who they are. She must move quickly on the RSPT rather than negotiate with each individual company.
Give the miners a rate of 8.8% before the tax kicks in, keep the profits rate at 40%, remove all additional depreciation allowances and government guarantees on losses. And move quickly. Mining leases should be automatically removed with significant penalties when a company is found to have set up a tax haven shelf company.
See you at tonight’s key event – When You’ve Paid Your Rent, You’ve Paid Your Way
